82 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



foliage will be injurious, as far as preventing free access to 

 light and air. Nor do I acquiesce with our learned friend 

 Dr. Lindlej, in supposing that it proceeds from the roots be- 

 ing too cold for the internal atmosphere. I had vines under 

 my care at Edgerston, in Roxburghshire, in the spring of 

 1837, when the thermometer stood at 13° out of doors, and 

 the internal atmosphere was 72°. The vines were planted on 

 the outside of the house, with their stems wrapped up with 

 moss, and the border mulched. They were planted in a com- 

 post of strong hazelly loam, formed from the sward of a 

 pasture thoroughly decomposed, and one fourth vegetable 

 mould of decayed tree leaves, one sixth of good rotten horse 

 and butcher's grub dung, and a little sheep dung, with a mod- 

 erate quantity of powdered bones and lime rubbish. The 

 borders were frequently watered with liquid manure water 

 from the drainings of a dunghill, and we never had a shriv- 

 elled grape during the three years I was there ; and these 

 grapes have never failed taking the first prize for the best 

 flavored bunch at the Jedburgh Horticultural Society, for 

 many years past ; and there are vkieries in this neighborhood 

 that have borders not above three feet deep, upon a gravelly 

 bottom, which have not been renewed these fifty years, that 

 have had abundance of shrivelled grapes in them every year 

 lately. I think the foregoing remarks prove that it is neither 

 the coldness nor the richness of the border that is the occa- 

 sion of the shrivelling. Now, in my opinion, damp, stagnant 

 air is very much, if not altogether, the cause of the shrivelling 

 of grapes after they commence their second swelling. If 

 there should not be a free circulation of air in the house, they 

 will shrivel, and, if the weather be wet or cloudy, they will 

 not do with high forcmg. I am certain, from experience, that 

 W. H. is perfectly correct as to the air, and keeping a dry 

 atmosphere." 



Vol. 17, page 47. Another writer says, " Never thin out 

 the berries until the seed is formed, and let the berries touch 

 and press each other close when ripe ; " this, he says, will 

 prevent all shanking. 



